I have, but I’m going through the Remake trilogy and my partner is watching me complete the game. As far as I know they have somehow stayed unspoiled this whole time, so I’m going to try to keep it that way as long as I can. I’m playing Remake on Hard to remember the story and delay until my next paycheck, but will zoom through as fast as I can to get any cool stuff I missed and then jump into Rebirth.
But I’m just curious, will they still enjoy Rebirth as much as I enjoyed the original games? Or do they change too many things for the sake of the meta-narrative? They are adamant they won’t play the original btw, they are watching me play for the story while on their phone, and I don’t think will be able to get past the old graphics and lack of voice acting, so I suspect the “This is a sequel, just play the original game” line I keep seeing on Reddit won’t fly for them.
Haha I think you nailed exactly where I’m coming from, what made me confused, suspicious, and what emotional beats I was hoping they wouldn’t ruin, like at the end of the OG’s disc 1 or a certain twist in disc 2 (which I know we haven’t gotten to yet, but it’s probably why I won’t show them Crisis Core Réunion until after the third in the trilogy, because I heard it blows that twist). It sounds like the creators of the game might be causing this distress to me on purpose, but it doesn’t change as much as I think, which would be great, that would be perfect lol. Especially if it really only affects me because I’ve played the original, without it sacrificing a good story for my partner who hasn’t played the original. I don’t want it just to be a commentary on remakes or something, because while that would be cool for me, that wouldn’t mean anything to them. But if they still get a great experience, too, hell, even a better experience than me, that would be even better. Because I still have the original, I’ve already fallen in love with the world and the characters. I want a new generation of fans to feel that, too, without needing a PSN Premium subscription lol.
I absolutely loved the way Remake delved more into the various characters and how it treated all of them with respect and love, they felt like real people but still felt unique. Barrett was silly but still cool and passionate. Cloud was edgy and a badass but he had his occasional soft side. Tifa and Aerith’s budding friendship is so nice and they both have great relationships with each other and Cloud. And I loved the additional detail on the Avalanche trio. Remake was actually absolutely perfect for me, it’s exactly the right addition of detail and I love it, and it’s gotten my partner interested in the world of FF7 for the first time, which is also great. It was only the end that made me cock an eyebrow, like you said lol. If Rebirth is more of that, which it sounds like it is, I’m so excited! It makes me want to get the game right now.
Thabks for the amazing, detailed answer. This is exactly what I was looking for.
Related to the end: while it made me kind of worried about what it hinted for changes in the next game (especially one scene at the very end I thought was a big deal about revealing a certain character which would cause huge ripples) my partner had no qualms. They got the general idea that something happened before, but it’s changing, which I guess to them would probably just be like any other prophecy based plot, and just kind of left all other questions to be answered in the next game. I suppose that’s not too different from where I was when I left Midgar in the original, though.